Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

Golf Like a Champ: LA’s Best Public Courses

Elizabeth Dahl
By

If you love golf, LA is not a bad place to live. Its sunny, predictable weather provides essentially 365 opportunities to play the game. The city helps by offering some incredible courses at ridiculously reasonable fees. These are just a few:

Los Feliz 3-Par:

Recommended Videos

We’ll warm up a bit with Los Feliz: It’s a little oasis of green that provides a soothing atmosphere for a game full of gentlemanly swears under one’s breath. However, those relaxing, verdant trees are a double edged sword, providing plenty of hazards and challenges. Opened in 1947 as a driving range, it’s evolved throughout the years to be a favored spot among Angelenos, whether they’re playing or eating at the adjacent cafe, Eatz, full of delicious diner food and booze. People at all skill levels play this course, so it’s not unusual for pace of play to be relatively slow. Buy beer in the cafe or feel free to bring your own. Did we mention it was immortalized in the movie “Swingers”?

Stats: 1,043 yards, 9 holes, par 27

Cost: LA Residents: Monday – Thursday: $5.50, Friday: $6.25, Weekends/holidays: $7

Rental clubs available

Roosevelt:

Maybe you want more difficulty than Los Feliz, but less of a time commitment than a full course: head to Roosevelt. Located in Griffith Park, it’s a challenging, hilly course that tends to attract more experienced players than Los Feliz. It’s a walk-only course, so peaceful and beautiful you have no idea you’re in the middle of bustling Los Angeles, in the shadow of the Observatory. There’s a good cafe on hand as well as putting greens for practice. Roosevelt provides one walk that golf can’t ruin, no matter how you score that day.

Stats: 2,478 yards, 9 holes, par 33

Rating: 31.3

Rental clubs and pull carts available

Cost: LA Residents: Monday-Thursday: $14.50, Friday: $16.75, Weekends/holidays: $19

Rental clubs and pull carts available

Wilson and Harding: two 18-hole courses

These two full courses are essentially intertwined with one another in Griffith Park, making it look like the world’s largest course. They, too, are beautiful courses, and on these two you get to wheel around in a golf cart. It can be a little confusing where your next hole is so a map is highly advised. These courses co-hosted the Los Angeles Open in the 1930s, so they offer up plenty of long drives and challenging hazards. You also get something of an urban safari: it’s not unusual to spot coyotes, herds of deer, and rabbits on the greens. These courses also come chock full of bonuses: You’ve got the benefit of a pro shop, stocked with knowledgeable pros, a driving range (6 am -10 pm), locker rooms, cafe, and banquet hall.

Stats:

Wilson: 6,967 yards, 18 holes, par 72

Rating: 73.0

Harding: 6,679 yards, 18 holes, par 72

Rating: 71.3

Cost:

Wilson: LA Residents: Monday- Thursday: $33, Friday: $37, Weekends/holidays: $43

Harding: LA Residents: Monday-Thursday: $30, Friday: $34, Weekends/holidays: $40

Rental clubs, golf carts, and pull carts available

Hansen Dam Course:

There aren’t that many places in Los Angeles to see large collections of water (outside of the beaches), but Hansen Dam Course sits at, you guessed it, the Hansen Dam face. This is one of the newer courses, opening in 1964 and it was honored in 2008 by Golf Digest as one of the “Best Places To Play.” Part of the reason has to do with the big distinction between the front and back nine: The course challenges players with big changes in elevation and landscaping. They give you the option of playing just the back nine, but only during the first hour of daylight, so you’d better be an early riser or you’re in for the whole shabang. In addition to a driving range and putting greens, Hansen Dam offers a place to practice chipping and lessons if the practice isn’t paying off.

Stats: 6,669 yards, 18 holes, par 72

Rating: 71.8

Cost: LA Resident: Monday-Thursday: $30, Friday: $34, Weekends/holidays: $40

Club, golf cart and hand cart rentals available

Topics
Elizabeth Dahl
Elizabeth Dahl
Elizabeth Dahl is a southern girl in the heart of Los Angeles who lived far too long before learning what an incredible food…
Reacher season 3: Everything we know so far
Get up to date on Reacher season 3!
Alan Ritchson in Reacher.

The era of Jack Ryan may be over, but Reacher is carrying on as one of the best shows on Amazon Prime Video. This action thriller is based upon Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, which previously featured Tom Cruise in the leading role of two different movies. But for Prime Video, Alan Ritchson has stepped into the role of Jack Reacher, a former member of the United States Army Military Police Corps who drifts from town to town and takes justice into his own hands when the local law enforcement isn't enough.

Prime Video didn't waste any time before renewing Reacher for a third season last year. And while new episodes are still several months away, we're sharing everything we know about Reacher season 3.
Which Reacher novel will season 3 be based on?

Read more
The 11 best superhero movies of all time
Here's a short list to start your superhero movie binge
Tom Hardy and Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Need a break from real life? Here's a list of the best superhero films to binge. Choosing the best superhero films of all time is no easy task. Ask any fan of superheroes, whether it's the comics or films, and you're guaranteed to get a different list every time. Share your list with others, and the responses will include either nods of agreement, raised eyebrows, or blunt responses that you're dead wrong.
In compiling the list of best superhero films of all time, I tried to keep viewers of all ages and devotion to superhero cinema in mind. My original plan was to include Deadpool on the list until I realized there's an entire generation of movie fans still not allowed to watch the film because of its R-rating. The LEGO Batman Movie also appeared in my initial top choices, but the film felt out of place compared to the other films. (I still recommend LEGO Batman to everyone because it's darn hilarious.) Full disclosure: This list might change as we add and subtract films as they premiere and earn their spot on the list.
After much internal debate, I finally drilled down 11 superhero movie choices for both Marvel and D.C. with personal reasons for each selection. While thousands of fans likely won't agree with this list, few will argue that all these films are fantastic and worth multiple viewings. That said, here's my list of the best superhero movies of all time and where to watch them. Many are available on Disney Plus and Amazon Prime for your viewing for your convenience. Spoilers ahead.

11. Black Panther (2018)

Read more
How long should you let new cigars rest in a humidor?
Cigar humidor

Looking at those beautiful, oily cigars you've just unboxed or unwrapped, the calling to light up is real. I get it. I always want to smoke my cigars right away, too. But you shouldn't. Mail day is always exciting after you've ordered a slew of new cigars. When they arrive, the real fun begins. You'll probably need to organize your humidor to make the new sticks fit or arrange them for optimal humidification. As you're handling them, it's difficult to resist the temptation to crack open the cellophane or boxes and smoke one right away. While you can do that in most cases, I would recommend against it. Depending on where those cigars came from, where you live, and how they traveled, they might need a little time to rest in a humidor. They'll need to replenish some humidity and moisture or dry out a little.
How long should you let your new cigars rest?

When you put cigars in a humidor, especially one that's filled, they'll soak up and release humidity over time until they reach the average RH (relative humidity) that you have set inside your humidor. If you have a device like a that does this automatically, it will produce moisture and humidity to keep the levels optimal. You can also achieve the same thing with in smaller humidors, which release and soak up the humidity to match the levels on the label. Boveda packs come in a range of RH levels, from the low to mid-60s to the mid-70s.

Read more